Celeste Anwar - Carnal Thirst

"Danior,” she said, and in her beautiful voice was a threat. Death emanated from her lips.

"What are you doing here, Tatiana?” Danior demanded, clenching his hands into fists.

"I had to see if it was true.” She laughed coldly. “How far the mighty fall."

Danior's lips curled in a chilling smile. “You were ever one for theatrics, Tatiana, but I'm afraid we'll have to miss the rest of the play. We've an urgent need to breathe more healthful air."

She chuckled. “I know, but I'm afraid that won't be possible."

To her left and right, two men cloaked in black stepped out, almost indistinguishable from the dark save for their pale, skin and glowing eyes.

"You led them to me."

Maggie glanced at him sharply at the tone of his voice, or rather the lack of any tone at all, as if he were being excruciatingly careful of his words. She could read nothing in his expression, but she knew, quite suddenly, that this woman had once been Danior's woman. She turned to look at the woman again, fighting the sickness that welled inside her, the jealousy.

She smiled at the look on Maggie's face. “They needed someone who had a blood bond with you. How could I refuse?"

A sense of unreality washed over her. Time seemed to slow, the moments stretching into minutes. She blinked, turning her head to look at Danior once more and seeing nothing but a blur of motion as he launched himself at the nearest man. They collided mid-air, struggling, slashing at each other with their teeth. Cold washed over Maggie as she watched helplessly, trying to fight the shock off, trying to think if there was anything she could do to help. Should she try to help? Or would she only be in the way?

Would her efforts only distract Danior and hamper him instead of helping?

Cringing away from the fight, she moved her head to see where the others were.

The second man stood where he had been, awaiting a chance to strike. The blond woman, Tatiana was watching the two men who struggled with a smile on her face.

Rage filled Maggie. This woman had meant something to Danior. She knew just from the way he'd behaved that he had been stunned that Tatiana had betrayed him. What had that cost him? Had it divided his heart and mind? Distracted him from the strength and purpose he needed to defeat the hunters who'd come to kill him?

She couldn't seem to will herself to move, however. It was like a nightmare. Every smallest movement required the utmost concentration.

It was almost as if she'd been enthralled.

She knew with sudden enlightenment that she had been. One of the vampires had her. Which one, she wasn't certain. Danior, in an effort to protect her? Or one of the others?

She didn't know, but as she watched Danior slay the man he'd been fighting and struggle to his feet to face his other foe, she began trying to break free of the mind control that held her rooted to the spot, helpless, unable to help Danior.

He was weakened from his battle with the first vampire, bleeding from wounds on his face and neck and hands, bleeding, she saw to her horror, even from slashes that had cut through his leather clothing and into his chest, his shoulder.

She dragged her gaze back to the vampiress, realizing abruptly that it was Tatiana that held her. She allowed her hate to swell inside of her, allowed it to consume her mind. Little by little she felt the control over her slip, like the faint loosening of a binding rope.

Grinding her teeth now with the effort, she focused on the pain this woman's betrayal had caused Danior.

She focused on the fact that the woman was the epitome of those women who'd tormented her her entire life.

With an effort that made her break a sweat, she took a step forward, and then another.

Tatiana's attention shifted and Maggie's followed, almost as if she were a puppet.

Relief filled her when she saw that Danior had slain the second man ... until she saw that he was too weak from the battle to rise. Even as she stared at him, struggling to break the mind hold so that she could run to him, Tatiana fell upon him, tearing a gash alone his shoulder and neck with her teeth.

She meant to kill him, to finish him off now that he was too weak to fight her.

Without any conscious effort whatsoever, Maggie broke the hold on her and surged forward. Mindless, beast-like, she fell upon her prey. Grasping her by her hair, she tore Tatiana from Danior and slung her away with a strength she'd never known she possessed.

Tatiana struck one of the concrete supports of the garage, wrapping halfway around it. It would have snapped the back of a human. The vampiress landed in a crouch and launched herself at Maggie, her teeth bared in a snarl. Maggie's heart seemed to leap into her throat as she watched the woman flying at her. Ignoring it, she waited until the woman was almost upon her and slung her fist directly toward the oncoming teeth. Pain slid up her fist, her arm, and into her shoulder. It shook her terror from her, however, and, before the woman could recover and scramble to her feet, Maggie fell upon her, pummeling her and tearing at the vampiress with her own teeth until she realized the woman wasn't moving any more.

Gasping for breath, she sat back on her heels, staring in horror at the bloody corpse that she'd made. As abruptly as the animalistic madness had descended upon her, it vanished. She scurried away from the woman's body, crab like, unable to tear her gaze away.

Her stomach heaved bile into her throat and she braced her palms on the pavement, retching until she could do nothing more than gag. After what seemed an eternity the heaving ceased. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she spat the vile taste from her mouth and looked around.

Danior lay motionless.

On the instant, everything else vanished from her mind and Maggie scrambled toward him. She didn't even realize that she was sobbing hysterically until she saw the tears dripping onto Danior's face.

Scooping his head against her chest, she rocked him, stroking his hair. “Don't die, Danior. Please! Don't leave me!” she sobbed, knowing it was already too late.

But he was warm still, she thought angrily. He couldn't be dead.

When he touched her face, she jerked all over.

Leaning back, she blinked the tears from her eyes and looked down at him. “Danior?"

"It's ... nearing dawn. Go. Save yours..."

"Not without you,” Maggie ground out. Shifting, she caught him beneath both arms and thrust upward with all her strength. Her back burned. Her arms burned with the strain, but she staggered back, dragging him with her. It would be easier, she knew to run to get the car, but she couldn't leave him with the others. Someone might happen upon them before she could get back.

When she'd finally managed to drag him into a darkened corner, she leaned down and kissed him, briefly, on the lips. “I'll be back in a minute,” she said, fishing the car keys from his pocket and turning to look at the numbers on the parking slots nearest them.

When she returned, he lay much as she'd left him. It took sheer determination, but she finally managed to get him in the car. Once she'd done so, however, she wasn't certain what to do next.

They were supposed to take a ship, but which dock? How to get to the dock? How was she going to get him onboard, in this condition?

Shaking off her doubts, she fished around in the glove box and unearthed a map. He would heal, she told herself. By the time they'd reached the docks, he'd be OK and they could board and everything was going to be alright.

Danior was dying. She couldn't see why. The blood had ceased to flow. His wounds, even the worst of them, had closed. Unless ... unless that bitch had broken him inside somehow. But everything else was healing.